


Rain From a Cloudless Sky

by shizuka93



Category: Naruto
Genre: Gen, Goodbyes, Traditional Clothes, Train Station
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-03
Updated: 2016-11-03
Packaged: 2018-08-28 22:00:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 737
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8464615
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shizuka93/pseuds/shizuka93
Summary: The cage is open, and the bird is now free. Ready to travel far, far away.





	

Neji looked out of the window, and the dirty glass gave him the feeling that it was very cold outside. He sighed, not really knowing if it was from fatigue or impatience. As much as he was considered a genius, certain things were simply lacking of an explanation.  
  
Like the fact that he was there.  
  
For someone who used to rely blindly on fate, it was hard for him to believe it was God's will or anything of the sort.  
  
On the table rested a cup of tea, and Neji caught it and brought it closer to his lips. Before taking a sip, that burned the tip of his tongue, he smelled the bitter aroma and let the ethereal smoke twist in the loose strands of his hair.  
  
He allowed a smirk to stretches one corner of his lips. Hinata had part of his hair braided. A good hairstyle for long trips, she had said, but the joyfulness of his cousin and all those colorful elastic strings she wore in her wrist were very suspicious. She hummed while using the comb and, in the end, there had been nothing too bad. Neji looked in the mirror approvingly, the last inch of his very long hair was carefully braided and tied at the tip to a single pale green ribbon.  
  
Hinata’s liveliness had vanished like the smoke of his tea when she waved at the gate.  
  
He sighed, something told him it was time to go. Leaving a few coins on the table, Neji stood up and put his worn jacket. Over one shoulder, he rested the handle of his tattered backpack. A true lone traveler, Hinata told him while straightened the collar of his jacket with almost unnecessary care.  
  
But he would not be a solo. Many others who had stopped for a coffee also seemed about to get up from their places.  
  
Neji took a deep breath and, for a second, hesitated at the door. Only for a second. He reached out and opened it at once, closing his eyes to the white light that suddenly blinded him while a little bell sounded distant in his ears.  
  
When Neji reopened his eyes, he knew that if he looked back, he would not be in a train station café. He was elsewhere, in the mountains, waiting for the train. He held in his hands an old _shamisen_ and an open cage, that was left on the wooden bench. Neji put the instrument on his back, joined hands and hid them on the sleeves of his _haori_ , where majestic paradise flycatchers flew in the dark fabric, and approached the train line. On the opposite side of the platform, two men were in an altercation about the outcome of a baseball game, and one of them waved gently while the other dusted the cigarette ashes that fell in his curiously festive _happi_. Neji nodded respectfully to them.  
  
He looked up. The sky was clear without any cloud, but he had not seen the sun in order to specify the exact hour. A cool wind with a faint smell of the sea blown, and Neji closed his eyes to better feel it, his hair being brushed over his shoulders. The other two men had also stopped their discussion.

"It's the kind of wind that announces the rain", Inoichi said, softly.  
  
Neji opened his eyes and saw that the man had crossed his arms and was absently gazing at the front, where an emerald green mountain hides the view of the ocean. His companion also looks at the same point, nodding in agreement.  
  
"How is this possible?", Neji asks, more to himself than to the two men. How could it rain, if there was not a single cloud in his field of vision?  
  
However, Neji hears a shy drizzle begins to fall on the roof of the small railroad stop. He dares to lean over the railing and look up, and tiny drops fall on his face, striking lightly his cheeks and his lips. They are warm and salty. And then Neji understands.  
  
The two men are still silent, watching with gravity the shy falling rain. There is something solemn in that moment and Neji can not stop thinking about his friends.  
  
The rain slowly begins to cease. Far away, in the curve of a mountain, a column of smoke rises and Neji hear the train whistle. It's time to leave.


End file.
